The Garden City Telegram
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More than just playing around
Published 11/18/2008 in News
By STEPHANIE FARLEY
The air was still in Scout Park Monday morning as no children played in the park -- being that they all were in school -- and the playground equipment sat, unused.
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Stephanie Farley/Telegram — The Garden City Recreation Commission receives funding from Finney County United Way to help provide staff and supplies for the recreation commission's playground program. The program is offered to youth kindergarten to age 13 and is provided at three locations during the summer, including Finnup Park, Scout Park and East Garden Village.
But during the summer, the park's hopping, according to Donna Gerstner, assistant superintendent for the Garden City Recreation Commission. She said 265 youth were enrolled in the Recreation Commission's playground program this past summer.
The program, which stations children at three locations -- Finnup Park, East Garden Village and Scout Park -- for a summer program four days a week, and the recreation commission are one of 21 agencies receiving money from the Finney County United Way to support local services and programming. According to Gerstner, the program receives $6,169 in support from United Way, mainly to help with the expense of supplies and staff. The United Way funding is about 34 percent of the playground program's total budget of $18,000.
Gerstner said the program differs from other programming the Recreation Commission offers in that it's free to youth, and transportation is provided to those unable to get to the program. Partnering with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Finney and Kearny Counties, as well as USD 457 and other groups in the community, Gerstner said the program targets youth who would otherwise be unable to attend a summer program because either their parents are working and can't get them there or they'd have to walk a long distance to attend.
The program's a collaboration, she said, to help children who would normally be unsupervised during summer days. USD 457 provides meals to the program's youth, she said, so she and other staff know the children are receiving good nutrition at least four times a week. The program also brings in speakers, such as those with the Finney County Sheriff's Office, Finney County Extension and Garden City police and fire departments.
As the playground program has grown, she said, she's seen youth attend who she'd never seen at other recreation commission functions. Providing transportation has been a key in getting new children to participate, she said.
Gerstner said the program also offers arts and crafts, camaraderie, physical activity and trips to the Big Pool, which help expand children's horizons when mom and dad can't get them to the different places.
Without the United Way funding, as well as funding from the Western Kansas Community Foundation, Gerstner said, the GCRC would have to charge for the program. And many families wouldn't be able to afford the cost, she said.
The program is offered to those kindergarten age to 13 years old, Gerstner said, though no one is turned away.
The commission will start accepting applications and requests for the summer program sometime in May when the commission's summer brochure comes out.
Gerstner said the recreation commission would, at some point, like to expand the playground program to another location, but it all comes down to funding.
Garden City resident Tina Almos rents a home from the recreation commission and said her granddaughter, Martina Joachim, 9, attended the playground program last summer. She attended at Scout Park this past summer and plans to attend again this coming summer at Finnup Park.
"It was absolutely wonderful," Almos said.
Almos works during the day and said Martina would've stayed inside watching TV if it wasn't for the playground program, which allowed her to stay physically active and learn different activities and projects.
The program made her world "a little bit bigger," she said of the 9-year-old.
"The rec is just so good to Martina," Almos said, adding Martina goes to the commission's facility in the afternoons.
While the recreation commission believes in offering programing and services to the public, "there's a cost to everything we do," said GCRC Superintendent John Washington said, adding he and his staff are continuously evaluating whether a program is needed or how to evolve it.
With the recreation commission running programming year-round, he said, the United Way funding is the only way the playground program remains viable.
Agencies receiving 2009 campaign funds include the following: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Finney and Kearny Counties, Community Day Care, Emmaus House, Santa Fe Trail Council Boy Scouts, Russell Child Development Center, Smart Start, Salvation Army, Miles of Smiles, United Cerebral Palsy of Kansas, American Red Cross, Catholic Social Service, Family Crisis Services Inc., Meals on Wheels, United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries Clinic, Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Association, Garden City Family YMCA, Finney County RSVP, Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland, Kansas Children's Service League Head Start and Spirit of the Plains CASA.
Garden City Recreation Commission
Superintendent: John Washington
Address: 310 N. Sixth St.
Phone: 276-1200
Community Center hours: 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Web site: www.gcrec.com
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